ACCLIMATIZATION OF FOREIGN TREES AND PLANTS. 533 
stately Wellingtonia, the formal self-asserting “Puzzle- 
monkey,” or Araucaria imbricata, the massive Deodar and 
Cryptomeria, the elegant Pinus insignis and Cupressus 
Lawsoniana, are all still of too recent introduction to permit 
us to judge of what their effect will be when grown to their 
full stature. The number of cone-bearing trees from all 
parts of the world, perfectly hardy in this climate is extra- 
ordinary ; and, partly from their graceful shape, partly from 
the evergreen character of their leaves, the attention of cul- 
tivators has been perhaps too exclusively confined to them, 
while deciduous trees have been comparatively neglected. 
Recent experiments have shown that in this quarter also 
there is abundant room for an extension of our powers of 
domestication. In one of the London Parks least frequented 
by the upper ten thousand, that at Battersea, great success 
has attended the introduction, during the last few years, of 
half-hardy trees and shrubs, the precaution being ‘taken of 
protecting their roots during winter by a layer of some sub- 
stance impervious to frost. The French have paid more 
attention to the perfect naturalization of half-hardy plants 
than we have done; notwithstanding the greater severity of 
their winter, species are grown by them out of doors which 
are never seen with us except in greenhouses; even as far 
north as Paris, the bamboo, for instance, is frequently met 
with in gentlemen’s gardens; and there is no doubt that 
many shrubs and herbaceous plants, which we never think 
of attempting to grow except under protection, might, with 
a very little care and attention, become permanent denizens 
of our gardens and shrubberies. Probably few are aware 
that the common Camellia will stand with impunity an ordi- 
nary English winter. Mr. Mongredien says that "if pro- 
tected during the first two or three years after being planted 
out, and when once established, it proves in the climate of* 
London quite as hardy as the common laurel, and blooms as 
profusely as in a conservatory. It is true that, from its habit 
of flowering early in the spring, the blossoms are sometimes 
